Lubricating system



11111818, 1929. w. E. s. STRONG ET AL 1.717.814

LUBRI CATING SYSTEM Filed Aug. 25, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 3/ w, T s N W .E n V T mym A y B a pm,W KWMLEDJ Patented June -18, 1929.

UNITED {STATES 1,717,814 PATENT. OFFICE.

WILLIAM EDWARD soHENcK STRONG, or NEwYoRK, N. 1., AND WILLIAM DIETER, E NE ARK, NEW 'JERsEY, ASSIGNORS To E. w. BLISS COMPANY, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A GOBPORATION or DELAW RE.

UBR'Ic TmG SYSTEM.

Application filed August 25, 1926. Serial No. 131,412.

This invention provides improved lubricating means, especially adapted for gearing for the propeller shafts of boats, while useful also for other purposes. In certain speed boats, for example, the crank shaft of the engine is connected to an upper gear, which drives a lower gear on the propeller shaft.

Heretofore it has been customary to enclose these gears in a casing filled with oil, but the churning action of the gears, and especially the surface or skin friction, heats the oil considerably, and there is a serious waste. of power. It has also been proposed with gears enclosed in a'casing as before, toproject the oil between them under pressure on their approaching sides in a stream from a nozzle, the oil being then permitted to flow out from the bottom of the casing through a tube.

The oil is impelled by a suitable pump, which delivers it under pressure to the nozzle; the oil is drawn from the outlet of the casing and circulated through a cooler, from which it is forced back to the nozzle.

The present invention improves upon the latter system; it provides for adaptlng the lubricating means to a reversal of the rotation of the gearing. It also provides means for modifying the action of the force pump to compensate for varying speeds. Other features of the invention will be made apparent as the description proceeds.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated is for lubricating the gearing of a speed boat.

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side elevation of the incased gearing, a portion of which is in vertical section, and of the pump, with diagrammatic representations of the cooler and tank and connecting pipes.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the gear casing, on the line 22 in Fig. 1.

Fig.3 is a top view of the pump casing.

Figs. 4 and 5 are vertical transverse sections through the force pump, on the lines 4-5 in Figs. 3 and 6, the one showing the conditions when turning forward, the other when reversing.

Fig. 6 is a vertical sect-ion through the two pumps, in the plane of their axes of rotation.

. Fig. 7 is a vertical transverse section through the circulating pump, in the plane of the line 7-7 in Fig. 6;

Referring to Fig. 1, it may be. assumed that the shaft A is the engine shaft of a motor boat, and B the propeller shaft, these being connected by intermeshing gears C and D, within a gear case E. A force pump F is convenlently constructed as a rotary ump, being here shown as a usual type 0 gear pump (see Figs. 4, 5 and 6), having gears a b; and it is a matter of convenience and compactness to construct the circulating pump G 1n slmilar manner with gears c d, so that the two may be enclosed within casings H I which conform to one another and appear as one. These two pumps thus have one driving shaft in common, carrying the gears a 0, which is conveniently driven from one of the shafts A B (being shown as driven from B), through a coupling connection K (see Fig. 6); the other shaft L carries the idler gears b d and-may rotate or not. The casing H is shown as cast integrally with the end cap of the casing E, which is a convenlent and com'pactconstruction; the two casings H I are se arated by a plate M. The pumps F and d valves, being inlet valves, 6 e and outlet valves f 7", opening upwardly and closing downwardly on suitable seats. According to the direction of rotation, each pump has a suction chamber 8 and a pressure chamber p.

In Fig. 1 is shown a conventional cooler P and a tank or reservoir .Q. The cooler is shown as cooled by a coil P in a usual manner. A suitable arrangement of connecting pipes is shown in this figure. From the pressure side p of the pump F leads a passage 9 (Fig. 4) controlled by the. outlet valve f, and leading to a pipe h which conducts the oil to one side of the gear case and connects with a nozzle R which projects a jet of oil between the gears G D when their teeth are approaching and entering into mesh. The velocity of this stream of oil should approximate the linear velocity of the gear teeth, or may exceed it. The oil passes partly between and partly around the gears, and finally falls to the bottom of the case, from which it runs (or is drawn) out through an outlet 2'; whence it is led through a pipe 7' to the inlet to the pump G; it passes up through a suction passage, lifting a valve 6' (on the right in Fig. 7) into the suction chamber 8, being then swept are shown as having ball around by the gears into the pressure chaming into a ipe [6 which conducts it into the hot end of e cooler P. From the cool end of this cooler it is led by a pipe m to the tank Q. From this tank it is drawn back through a pipe n to the inlet 9 (Fig. 4) of the pump H. This inlet is a transverse passa e leading to either of the inlet valves e e. s shown, it is drawn through the right hand valve into the suction chamber a, and thence is forced by the gears into the pressure chamber p. This completes the circuit.

As thus described, the ears are lubricated by a forced stream of oil irected against one side. If the gears are to turn alwa s in the one direction (shown b arrows in Fig. 2) the pumps could be simp ified by omitting the valves shown-seated in Figs. 4 and 7. But ordinarily such gearing requires to be reversed in direction,as, a boat to be backed.

To rovide for such reversal, the gear case E is urnished with a second nozzle R for directing oil between the gears when the rotate in the opposite direction. At suc time it is re uired that the discharge of oil occur throng R instead of through B. This could of course be provided for by means of valves to divert the flow of oil from the pump H from one nozzle to the other. It is preferable to make any such arrangement automatic, so that the reversal of gear rotation will necessaril reverse the oil flow. This is simply'and e ectively' accomplished by the valve arrangement shown.

'By driving the pumps (or essentially the pump H) from the gearing, the reversal of the gearing reverses the rotation of the pumps. The pump H thus reversed is shown I in Fig. 5. By the backward rotation of the gears the chambers a p are reversed, so that the valves 0 f formerly actin seated, and the other valves ecome active. The oil entering at n then passes to the left through g, lifting valve e, and flowing into a; thence it is forced by the gears into p, whence it flows up through passage 9, lifting valve 7, and goes out by a pipe h which (Fig. 1) leads it to the nozzle B (Fig. 2).

Because of the varying speeds at which the boat is driven, and the fact that the pump, being driven from the shaft, varies equally in speed, the liquid forced to the nozzle would vary greatly in pressure with different speeds,'and at high speed might be raised to an undesirably high pressure, which would waste considerable power. To provide for this, the pump F is made self-relieving, so that when the pressure on the oil to the nozzle (say normally 5 pounds) becomes exces; sive, (say 20 pounds) it will force itself out and be byassed from the pressure side to the suction si e of the pump. This is ve simply provided for by making the seats g]? the Inlet valves e e on movable sleeves r 1- which are pressed up by springs t t, and remain up for example, to enable are normally during nbrmal pressure, but an excessive pressure on the pressure side p will force down the sleeve on that side against its sprin at the same time the ball valve e is kept rom following the seat down b means of a pin or other stop to which holds 1t up, so that i the downward movement of the seat opens up an annular by-pass for the back-flow of oil which crosses throughQ to the suction side and enters again through the valve e on that side. Thus. an excessive pressure is relieved by by-passing the pump.

ny air drawn out from the gear casing E is forced with the oil into the cooler P and collects at the top of the cooler; the top of the cooler is connected by a pipe 4) to the top of the gear casing, so as to vent the gear casing and provide a closed system.

While the proposed embodiment of the invention has been thus set forth in detail, it must not be inferred that this is its sole application, since it is applicable to various uses, with corresponding modifications in its structural features, all as Will be apparent to skilled engineers.

According to one such modification the bypassing of oil to relieve excessive pressure, instead of occurring directly across through the passage 9 of Fig. 5, will follow a circuit which includes the tank Q or a portion thereof. For this by a middlepartition (the same as the partition in the corresponding passage at the top of Fig. 5) into two inflow pipes, one at each side, admitting oil into the respective chambers on opposite sides of this central partition. These pipes will both lead to the tank Q, being suitably spaced apart at their junction with this tank. Preferably,'a partition will be placed in the tank between the openings thereinto of the two pipes. With this construction, when an excess pressure occurs so that there is a relief of this pressure by oil back-flowing around one of the inlet valves e (as shown on the right of Fig. 5) the oil thus back-flowing will flow out through one of the two pipes at and will back into the tank Q andthere will mix with the mass of oil therein, so that if this chambers, and instead of one, inflow pipe n in the middle, there will be two purpose the passage q is divided v,

ings, the oil thus back-flowing into the tank has to flow around this partition before it can join the body of oil flowing out through the a other pipe n to the pump.

While it is preferable to employ a nozzle 1' or r, such as are shown, so as to'project a concentrated jet or stream of oil between the their approaching sides.

gears, yet the term nozzle as used herein is not limited to such a concentrating or accelerating nozzle, but includes any means whereby oil may be introduced under pressure against the gears on their approaching sides and so as to more or less fill the spaces sides of the respective gears and conforming closely enough to the outer faces of their teeth to prevent the loss by backflow of any material quantity of oil, while avoiding such a close proximity to the gear teeth as to generate friction. By this means the body of oil thus introduced between the gears insures a substantial filling of the space between teeth with oil and accomplishes much thesame result as with the projecting nozzle shown in Fig. 2.. Such oil chamber may be of greater 1 or less size; for example, it may cover four or five teeth of the gears as they approach the intermeshing plane, and the walls of the chamber may be expanded in arc form parallel to the outer faces of the teeth for perhaps two to four teeth outwardly.

Other suitable modifications will be apparent to engineering constructors.

What we claim is;

' 1. A lubricating system forv gearing, com

prising opposed nozzles each arranged to direct a stream of oil between the gears on their approaching sides, means-for supplying oil under pressure, and means for directing such oil to either one nozzle or the other according to the direction of rotation of the gears.

2. A lubricating system for gearing, comprislng opposed nozzles each arranged to direct a stream of oil between the gears on their approaching sides, means for supplying oil under pressure to either nozzle, and operative means responding to the direction of rotation of the gears for directing such oil to the nozzle which discharges between the gears on 3. A lubricating system for gearing, comprising opposed nozzles each arranged to direct a stream of oil between the gears on their approaching sides, a rotary pump driven from the gears sothat the pump is reversed in rotation when the rotation of the gears is re versed, and means for conducting oil from the respective pressure sides of'the pump to the respective nozzles, whereby in either direction of rotation the oil will be directed against the approaching sides of the gears.

4:. A lubricating system according to claim 3, therotary pump having means responsive to the pressure in either direction of rotation for discharging oil from the pressure side when such pressure becomes excessive.

5. A lubricating system according to claim 3, the rotary pump having inlet valves operative respectively according to the direction of rotation, and means associated therewith for dischargingexcess pressure past the inactive inlet valve'for discharging oil from the pressure side when such pressure becomes excessive.

6. A lubricating system according to claim 3, the pump being a rotary gear pump with opposite inlet and outlet valves operative respectively according to, the direction of rotation, and by-passing means associated with the inlet valves for discharging excess pressure past the inactive inlet valve for discharging oil from the pressure side when such pressure becomes excessive.

-7. A lubricating system comprising a pump for forcing 011 under pressure, and means responsive to such pressure for dlseharglng oil from the pressure side when the pressure becomes excessive, such means, comprising a yielding valve seat for an inlet valve of the pum i r 8. A lubricating system comprising a pump for forcing oil under pressure, and means for by-passing excessive pressure consisting of a spring-seated sleeve forming the seat for an inlet valve of the pump, such seat adapted to yield to excessive pressure, and a stop for upholding the valve to provide a by-pass passage between them wlien the seat yields. In witness whereof, we have hereunto signed our names. I J

" WILLIAM E. S. STRONG.

WILLIAM DIETER. 

